This is a post for week 38 of The Gallery at Sticky Fingers. The theme is ‘white’ in honour, or otherwise, of the snow and ice most have us have experienced in varying amounts over the past two weeks. As I write the army has been called out to clear the streets of Edinburgh of snow and much of the country is gripped by sub-zero temperatures. I have been braving the garden to put out cheese, crumbs and seeds for the starlings and wagtailsthat are literally flocking to the bird table and flat roof outside the window where I write, only to see gulls and magpies snatch the bigger titbits. I suppose they need to feed their fat bellies too.

We are due to get a heatwave here in the south-west tomorrow. It is going to be 5 degrees centigrade. Put it this way, I am not putting the jumpers away any time soon. I loved Len Goodman’s remark about Anne Widdicombe on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ this week. ‘It’s like the snow – its fun to start with and then you just want it to go away…’ (or words to that effect). It is true that I have never seen so many people on twitter complaining of some hideous lurgi or other and when I took the dog out yesterday I swear my lungs froze. But snow can be so beautiful, and is so rare in the south of Britain that it seems a shame to wish it away. So I am posting my photos because they make me think of really good times in the snow, with the family and on my own. I hope I can look back on these when the 25th December dawns grey, wet and dreary as is it’s wont in these parts and dream of a white Christmas.

1. You’re never too old for Pooh sticks…

On holiday in the snowy Lake District. Even my teenage son and daughter were itching to throw sticks into the icy river…

2. You can’t get to feed the ducks, but you can think it might be Narnia…

Disappointment on the duck front yesterday – it was impossible to push your way to the water’s edge for the throng of people with their bags of stale sliced white. However – there was time to enter Narnia instead…

3. And when you see one of these it really does make you feel Christmassy….

I love this shot, not because it is one rubbish wildlife snap I actually got almost in focus, but because it was again taken on snowy hols in Cumbria and I know I had four kids aged between 14 and 18 going ‘quick quick, take a picture of the robin!!’ behind me. Not that they would admit it now…